Entries about sintra

You can do several day trip from Lisbon; even without a car. For instance you could head to Cascàis, to Sintra and to many other towns and villages.

I' d also recommend a visit to the palace of Queluz. I re visited it some years ago.

The national palace of Queluz was begun in 1747 on order by king Pedro III and completed in 1787. It was originally a hunting lodge.

Inside this palace you can visit the Throne Room, the Music Room; the Ambassadors Room and many other smaller rooms. There is even a chapel.

Once you visited the palace you can spend some time to explore its gardens.

One wing of the palace is used as a residence for foreign head of state visiting Portugal.

The palace is seat of many concerts and exibitions.

Cascais is a small town on the Atlantic coast, located some 30 km west of Lisbon. Once it was a fishing village. Today it is a famous tourist resort.

One of the attractions of Cascais is the Palace of Castro Guimarães. It was built in 1902. It is opened to visitors.

The Igreja Matriz (the main church) has some paintings by Josefa de Obidos. Unfortunately I couldn' t see them, because the church was closed when I visited Cascais..

If you happen to find the church and the palace closed you could rest on one of the beaches of the town, have a good lunch at a restaurant and do some shopping. There are lots of shops in Cascais!

The Palace of the Counts of Castro Guimarães. It is opened to visitors.

A fountain near the palace.

The palace is surround by a large park. The Parque Marechal Carmona.

A beautiful boy who lived at the park.

Dom Pedro I is my favourite restaurant in Cascais. It is a small reastaurant situated just some meters from the town hall. It is well hidden in a narrow street, but you will easily find it.

At Dom Pedro I you can sample various typical Portuguese dishes. They also have a menu at a fixed price which includes soup, a main dish, a dessert, a drink and a coffee.

It has only a small dining room and a small outdoor area where you can have your meal if the weather is fine.

Casa da Guia is a beautiful shopping center on the road that connects Cascais to the Guincho beach. It is a restored 19th century house. There are around 20 shops inside. Here you can buy furniture, clothes, some souvenirs, flowers and other things.

In its gardens you can find some kiosks, restaurants and cafes. Casa da Guia is also a place to rest having a meal or a drink.

I went there by foot from the center of Cascais and it was a long walk. So; I' d recommend to take a taxi or a bus to get there.

Sintra is a hilltop village made by three areas. Estefania; the modern area; with the train and the bus stations. Sintra-Vila; with the Royal Palace. Sao Pedro; located at some kilometers from Sintra-Vila.

Sintra National Palace. This palace served as a summer residence for the Portuguese kings since the early 14th century. Probably it has Moorish origin. What you see today mostly consists of the buildings ordered by king Joao I (around 1415) and by king Manuel I (1497 and 1530).

Inside you can see various rooms and a chapel. Some rooms opened to visitors are; Sala dos Cisnes (= swans). It has the ceiling divided into panels decorated with swans. Sala das Pegas (= magpies) and Sala dos Brasoes, with a domed ceiling decorated with 72 coats of arms of the king and noble families.

You can spot the palace from afar because it has two huge white chimneys.

Artnis is quite a large shop where you can find a good choice of home textils and various other items.

Here you can find table cloths, napkins, dish cloths, bath towels, aprons, soaps and other things. At Arnis they also sell clothes and accessories for small children.

This is a fine shop to look for some presents to take home.

I' ve read that Artnis is "Sintra" written in reverse order. I don' t know if the proprietors of this shop thought about it when they choose a name for it.

Quinta da Regaleira is a estate built between 1904 and 1910. It was designed by an Italian architect; Luigi Manini for a wealthy Brazilian merchant; Antonio Augusto Carvalho Monteiro.

The palace has five floors. Here you can visit the kitchen, and several rooms. You can visit the palace with a guided tour or by yourself.

Here you can visit a palace, built in neo-Manueline style, a chapel built in 1904 and a very beautiful garden with several fountains, grottoes, turrets and two artificial lakes.

There is a nice sculptures museum in Sintra; The museum Anjos Teixeira. It is housed inside a former watermill built at the beginning of the XX century.

If you are interested in sculpture you should visit this museum. Here you can see a large collection of sculptures made by two local artists named Anjos Teixeira (Pedro Augusto dos Anjos Teixeira; the father and Arturo Gaspar dos Anjos Teixeira; the son). Besides the sculptures here you can see lots of drawings and plaster studies.

Palacio da Pena is a palace situated quite far from the center of Sintra.

This palace is a mixture of Arab minarets, towers and domes. It was built between 1840 and 1850.

Prince of Baviera D. Fernando of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, husband of D. Maria II ordered it to be build on the site of the ruins of the monastery of Our Lady of Pena.

Inside the palace you can see a large ball room, the kitchen and several rooms.

The palace has been painted yellow and pink in the 90' s. These were its original colours.

It is quite expensive to visit the palace, but there are some discounts if you buy a special ticket that entitles you to visit this palace and also the national palace, and maybe some other attractions in Sintra.

A note; don' t leave Sintra without having tried some queijadas! The queijada is one of the two typical pastries of Sintra (the other is travesseiro).

The queijadas are made of a thin pastry case filled with a mixture of cheese, flour, sugar, egg yolk and cinnamon. Queijadas are sold at some other shops and cafes in Sintra.

Its recipe dates back to the 13th or 14th century. It seems that in the middle ages they were used to pay part of the fixed rent of landed properties in the Sintra area.

Some notes about the buses in Sintra.

Bus n. 434 takes a circular route from Sintra to various attractions in the area; including the National Palace, the Moorish Castle and the Pena Palace.

Bus 435 stops near the Museo do Brinquedo and the National Palace (Sintra Vila) then goes to Quinta da Regaleira; to the Palace of Seteais and to Montserrate.

These buses depart from a bus stop near the train station. Tickets can be bought from the driver.

Note; if you have to go only to Sintra Vila, where the National Palace is; take n. 435 bus. You will only pay some cents. Tickets for bus n. 434 costs lots more. I suppose around 5 or 6 euros per person.